The school's baku battles are like mini-Hunger Games arena tournaments, adding excitement to the unfolding of the larger plot, and giving Lacey a chance to prove her tech credibility. There's a bit of upper middle school romance, and considerable competition at school (Lacey must prove she has what it takes to be worthy of Profectus, and there's a nasty rich boy who hates her and wants to drive her out). It's also a friendship story, with one plot point being Lacey struggling to be a good friend to her bestie from her old school. Lacey's a maker constantly scavenging for materials to tinker with (money is tight in her home, so she has to find rather than buy what she needs), and other girls are coders, and electronics whizzes (and founders of tech companies!). So for starters, this is a story about girls (not just Lacey) with mad tech skills. Jinx isn't supposed to exist, and there are powerful people who want to make sure he doesn't.īut he is real, and alive, and Lacey loves him.and she'll do anything to save him. And though Jinx opens doors to her, such as landing her a place in the competitive club of elite baku dueling at school, he also lands her into a world of trouble. He has a mind of his own, far from the complacent and unquestioning co-operation of ordinary companions.

Jinx, as she calls him, is no ordinary baku. Right after it wakes up, she gets an acceptance letter to Profectus, and it seems like her dreams will come true. All summer she works to fix it, marveling while she works at the sophistication of its design, which is like nothing she's ever seen, and she succeeds in restoring it to functionality. It's recognizable cat-shaped, but mangled horribly. Just when she's most miserable, she finds the remains of a baku in a muddy gully. Instead of being launched into a career as a companioneer, designing the next generation of baku with a high level companion of her own, she has to make do with a basic level insect baku, and ordinary school. She has the grades, and she's a whizz at repairing baku she's made her apartment's basement storage space into her own workshop. Lacey thinks she'll be accepted to Profectus, the feeder academy for MONCHA. and companions (like Philip Pullman's daemons, but internet connected and needing to be charged). Lacey Chu dreams of one day working for MONCHA, the premier tech company in North America that became rich and famous after its founder, Monica Chan, invented 'baku,' customizable robotic pets that are both smart phones etc. In any event, this week I reached Jinxed, by Amy McCulloch (middle grade, Sourcebooks, Jan 2020 in the US), and what a very nice read it was! I'm working my way through all the library books I had checked out before they closed (there were a lot of them when I feel despondent at work I place library holds, and I guess I felt despondent a lot in March.).

Jinxed book 3 amy mcculloch